Pack of Pit Bulls

Various and sundry issues, subjects and controversy's as viewed by a pit bull advocate trying to unite the pit bull advocating, rescuing and owning world for the betterment of pit bulls and the people who have them everywhere.

I have been, and always shall be, a staunch supporter of having a positive attitude toward rescue in that those who rescue dogs not waste precious time and energy to judge, to hate, to expose or to publicly deride people who they feel have abandoned or neglected dogs. In other words I believe that publicly exposing the shortcomings of former owners of dogs does nothing to help the dog, help pay for the dog's medical care or housing or help the dog find a new home.

Today I was truly bowled over by someone who I've known for a while through social media who has always been a very active advocate for pit bulls, who rescues and fosters dogs but who has also shown to be judgemental of former owners and people who 'dump' dogs regardless of what reasons the former owners may have had for abandoning their dogs or surrendering them to a shelter. Now today this person posted on social media how a dog she's been fostering is 'just too much', has too much energy and that she will have to find another foster for this dog because the dog is just too much for her to handle. My reply to her was that she needs to find a good canine behaviorist, not a dog trainer but a behaviorist, with good experience to help her help this dog calm down and learn some manners. I suggested as well that the dog needs to get out for regular exercise which would help calm the dog by draining the dog's energy.

This person's response really knocked me for a loop and has prompted me to write this blog in yet another effort to help people see the sheer hypocrisy that runs rampant throughout the part of the animal welfare community that is always out on social media demeaning former dog owners, hating on former dog owners, blaming former dog owners and judging former dog owners as if the neglect, abandonment or surrendering of their dog was done intentionally by a cold-hearted monster. While I would never and am not making excuses for people who abandon, surrender to shelters or neglect their dogs and am not saying that what they did/do is perfectly okay I am here to say that this kind of defaming does no good for any dog at any time and that judging others is a form of suggesting that we ourselves are perfect.

Okay so the response to my suggestions that I got from this person was,"That costs a lot of money. I'm no where able to afford behaviorists let alone walkers, day care, etc." and I must tell you I was so tempted to rip her a new one because these are the very same excuses that some people who have wanted to find another home for their dog or who have surrendered their dog to a shelter or who have abandoned their dog have used; nearly verbatim! People who have been vilified on social media, called monsters, said that they should not ever be allowed to have another dog, who have been put out on social media as horrible people who had no hearts and who weren't worthy of having a dog. I have seen so many rescuers remind everyone that if you can't afford all of the things your dog needs or may ever need that you shouldn't have a dog and that you should always have resources to help your dog available or again you should not have the dog in the first place. Yet here is someone well respected in the dog rescue world who is trusted and who constantly advertises the sacrifices they make to rescue dogs and holds themselves up as a great rescuer and dog owner and they are making the very same excuses that they themselves have vilified and demonized other people for using. What the actual hell? Is it simply that we don't see ourselves as fallible or are we so untrusting, hateful and judgemental toward others?

Here it is folks...we MUST STOP THIS BULLSHIT VILIFICATION OF PEOPLE WHO DON'T KNOW ANY BETTER AND/OR DON'T PUT OUT AS MUCH EFFORT AS WE CLAIM THAT WE DO OR THAT WE WOULD!!!

That we seem to think that if we don't have all of the money to provide all the services and activities for the dogs in our care and that we either don't or can't expend the effort ourselves to get our dogs the exercise they need it's perfectly okay, that it's a good valid excuse and that we should never be judged for it or called into question about BUT seem to think that if someone outside of our animal welfare community has or uses any of these excuses they are heartless, cold, uncaring and undeserving dog owners we have a HUGE FREAKING PROBLEM!!! Our problem is that we are nothing more than a bunch of hypocrites who want recognition for the sacrifices that we make or for what we try to do for the dogs but who can't recognize that people who aren't in animal welfare face the very same challenges and have the same limitations that we have.

Come on people, what the hell is wrong with us???

In the end if we don't begin to open our hearts to humans in addition to animals and if we aren't going to be willing to see that we aren't perfect and that we can also use the same excuses for what we don't do or what we do then we are doomed. The animals deserve better human beings and that begins with US who claim to be putting so much effort into helping the animals. EVERYTHING IS CONNECTED and we can't separate humans from animals. If we are going to save the animals we can't toss aside the human beings while we are doing it...it just won't work and maybe that's why up to now it hasn't been working very well at all and we still struggle every day with too many dogs that need homes and not enough homes for them...just think about it for a minute! Are you in this for recognition or for emotional reasons or are you in this for the dogs???DISCLAIMER: I am in no way, shape or form criticizing the person I am writing about for saying what was said or for being in the situation they are in. What I'm trying to get across here is that things can happen to ANYONE and that when it happens to someone outside of the animal welfare community the vast majority of the time they are vilified and condemned on social media for it by people in the animal welfare community. All I'm saying is that we must STOP vilifying people for being human and for falling victim to life situations that can happen to anyone.

Most pit bull advocates, pit bull rescuers and most anyone who has a pit bull type dog and frequents any on line discussions about pit bulls has come across and has been aggravated by people who hate pit bulls.

I'm not talking about people that just don't like pit bull type dogs, I'm talking about people who appear to have made it their life's mission to eradicate every dog from the face of this planet that has the appearance of possibly being a pit bull type dog. How they choose to implement their mission is by going online, finding every article that has anything to do with an alleged pit bull type dog and then posting what they consider to be the 'real facts' about these dogs and the people who have them. These people are prolific and seem to be limited to around maybe twenty or so. Of course there are more than twenty people who hate pit bulls and fear them but those who actively search for articles on line where pit bull type dogs are being discussed and then post their rhetoric it seems is limited to around twenty or so. Over the last almost six years of being a pit bull advocate I've come to recognize and even after a fashion know many of these people; some on a far too intimate basis.

Like most pit bull loving people I find these people quite unpleasant, because as a rule they are quite unpleasant in how they address people who have or advocate for pit bull type dogs, and seem to have the knack for making statements that make other people's blood boil. It's quite obvious at times that some of them purposefully word their opinions in certain ways to goad pit bull supporters into a heated argument where name calling and worse can take place. I've never personally been stalked by any of the haters but know people who have which takes the conversation to a whole new level and one that doesn't bring any results other than aggravation, anger, frustration and in the end hatred.

I used to indulge in these conversations by calmly and factually offering up statistics and well-verified facts to counter the propaganda being posted by these people, addressing the haters directly. I would indulge in heated discussions and I would come away wishing I was in the same room as them so I could slap them, choke them or do something else physically to shake them out of the fog that they apparent choose to live in. That is just how aggravated they were able to get me. However not long ago a new found friend, who had just released a book on the history and controversies surrounding pit bull type dogs, after having a very serious and all too real stalking scare suggested something I had never considered. What she suggested was that we ignore these people in an effort to 'starve them' out. In other words if we don't respond to them it takes a lot of their power away because then they just appear to be some angry misinformed people posting unsubstantiated information and basically making themselves appear to be less than reliable when it comes to getting the real information about pit bull type dogs and the people who have them. So today I'm all about 'starving them out' and have stopped interacting with these people directly. That isn't saying that I don't provide verifiable, validated facts in online discussions about pit bull type dogs it simply means that when I do I don't address them, interact with them or respond to them directly but instead interact with the other people in the discussion who are either supporters of pit bull type dogs or are curious and want information so that they can make up their own mind about these dogs and about the people who have them. Thus far it's working fairly well for me and I can truly attest to the peace I have within by not interacting with or responding to the haters on line. I also find myself feeling particularly pleased that I was able to advocate for the dogs without acting like an ass, without exchanging insults and without causing me to appear to be a much less credible source for real and factual information.

As of late I've noticed that a lot of Facebook pages and events have been cropping up with titles/goals like 'Expose the Haters', 'Pit Bull Haters Exposed', 'The Truth About Pit Bull Haters' and others which is what I'd like to comment on in this blog. I'd like to suggest to the people who are understandably concerned about the pit bull haters that the more effort and energy that we put into exposing these people and confronting them the more power we are giving them. It is tantamount to providing them with free advertising first of all and secondly it confirms to them that they are making headway (because why would we be so desperate to prove them wrong if what they say wasn't credible?) and most of all, which I think is their real goal, they are getting to us which only serves to bolster their resolve. We can't give these people that kind of power. We who advocate for, rescue, who have or support pit bull type dogs and the people who have them MUST NOT give the haters any more power than they already have. But when we engage them in heated discussions, when we personally insult them because they personally insulted us, when we respond directly to the misinformation and propaganda that they post with claims that it's true and that we are the liars we are absolutely positively giving them much more power than they deserve. We are in effect helping them prove one of their most common points and that is that anyone who would advocate for, rescue or have a pit bull type dog is an unstable person, is a volatile person and is someone who is as vicious as they claim that ALL pit bull type dogs are. We can ill afford making those kinds of people appear to be right or to have a valid point when the public is watching us, and YES the public IS watching what's going on in these discussions, because the more ground they take and the more power they get the more likely others will begin to take them and what they say seriously thinking that where's there's smoke there's got to be fire.

I would implore those who feel they must expose these people to take down their Facebook pages and to reduce or better yet completely stop their efforts to shine a light on these people. By focusing so much attention on them we are not harming them in the very least but we are absolutely giving them more power; much more power than they deserve. If we shine our 'light' on responsible dog ownership and on celebrating the great responsible dog owners and their wonderfully behaved and safe pit bull type dogs we are in effect fighting the haters but we are doing it in a way that doesn't highlight them, doesn't give them any power and that will eventually leave them sitting in the dark talking to themselves with not a single person outside of their hate and fear mongering group to hear their words.

I sincerely hope that people will truly give this some thought and will understand that by starving them out by not giving them attention is quite possibly the most effective way to deal with them and to lessen the possibility that they will somehow influence public policy when it comes to us and our dogs.

On that note I'd like to leave everyone with this thought, this fact and the fact is, according to the laws of physics of the Universe that we exist in that governs not only the physical but also the non-physical that what we resist persists. In other words the more of our energy we feed into a problem, into someone who is against us, the more power we giving to it/them. It's as if we are freely giving over our own life energy to those who would do us harm and who would gladly do our dogs harm if they got the chance. Let's be smart folks, let's stop giving these people so much 'free advertising' and bringing so much attention to them and their cause...let's starve them out and the only way we can do that is to ignore them, talk around them, refuse to engage them and simply keep going in a positive direction as hard and as committed as we can. THAT IS WINNING...

As unpopular as the ‘voice of reason’ seems to be these days
I’d like to give it a try. This time
it’s about holidays where we humans choose to shoot off fireworks and the
effects it has on dog owners and their dogs.

I never had dogs that had issues with the sound of fireworks
prior to the dogs I have now and have had since 2010. My two previous dogs, Zeus and Odin, never
paid any mind at all to strange, or even strange and very loud, noises outside
of our home. Both of them even laid on
the sidewalk beside our lawn chairs for many 4th of July’s while we
ourselves shot off fireworks and just seemed to enjoy being with us but never
showed any fear about the noises. When
we got our dog Max and then Scooby that all ended because Max is afraid of any
‘strange’ noise around him no matter what sound he hears (even the notification
chime on my cell phone can send him out of the room with his tail between his
legs) and Scooby just seems to be afraid of the sound of fireworks.

When Max and Scooby exhibited their fear of the sound of
fireworks I jumped right on board the ‘I hate fireworks and they should all be
banned’ train. I started to get
aggravated, in anticipation of what my poor dogs would have to go through, about
a week prior to when the fireworks likely would start to go off in my
neighborhood every year. I wanted to
shoot my neighbors and used to try to come up with ways to get them to stop the
damned fireworks; all for the sake of my dogs.
I have even called the authorities to report those neighbors who felt
that the ordinance against firing off mortar rounds was only for other people
but not for them. Yes I was totally on
board with the hundreds and thousands or hundreds of thousands of other dog
owners who posted their anger over and hatred for fireworks and the people who
fire them off all over social media.

BUT there was somewhat of a helpless and hopeless feeling
that came along with that emotional response to a situation that I had
absolutely no control over in any way, shape or form. I don’t like feeling helpless or hopeless and
feel that there is always a way to deal with just about anything that comes up
in life. I have grown to be of the mind
that we all have a choice in matters like this and that I would consider only
two choices when faced with things that appeared I could not change; first
choice being to work for a mutually beneficial solution with others so the
situation changes and the second choice being to just simply deal with it on an
emotional level accepting that there isn’t anything I can do about it.

With my two ‘scaredy cat’ dogs I did neither for the last
several years and simply got aggravated at other people thinking them idiots
for doing what I myself had done not that long ago. We are learning that the more we react to the
fireworks the more our dogs do. We are
also finding that when we can remain calm and act as if nothing out of the
ordinary is happening that our dogs get much less upset and are upset for a
much shorter period of time.

THINK ABOUT IT!!! Our
dogs look to us for instructions. It is
in their very DNA as members of the canine specie. When we get pissed off, upset over or
frustrated with the fireworks and the people who set them off we are TELLING
our dogs as loudly and as clearly as if giving them a direct command like sit,
stay or come to be afriad and they are following our instructions to the letter. REALLY THINK ABOUT IT! The dog doesn’t know what that loud sound is
and they are afraid, then we become aggravated about it and they pick up on our
aggravation which they can’t rationalize in the very least. They don’t know we are aggravated with our
neighbors because their fireworks scare our dogs; all they know is that we are
upset about the noises and so they get even more upset about them.

If you would try an experiment you might find that you can help your dog’s much
more than you ever thought possible. I
would suggest that you take your normal precautions, like a thundershirt or
putting them in their safe place etc, and all the while you are going through
those motions instead of being apprehensive about when the fireworks start or
aggravated with people because their holiday celebration upsets your dogs and
just remain calm and unattached to any feelings of any kind about the
fireworks. Even when the fireworks start
and your dog is shaking or looking for a safe place to run REMAIN CALM and DO
NOT under any circumstances feel aggravated or upset about the noise. Go about your day/night no differently than you
do on any other day/night when there are no fireworks. I think if you can do this and continue to do
this that as these fireworks holidays/events go on you will see a marked
difference in how your dogs react. Any
improvement is a milestone for your dog if the dog is less upset or is upset
for a shorter time, right???

In the end none of us have any right whatsoever to dictate to others how they
celebrate the holidays when they set off fireworks. You would NOT like it, in the very least, if
one of your neighbors asked you to stop having dogs because they bark once in a
while or for whatever reason…IT IS THE SAME THING!!! We have NO right to ask and since they are
going to do it anyhow the only thing any of us can do is to change our
reactions so that our dogs reactions change/improve.

Bottom line is that people are going to set off fireworks
and they have every right to do so. We
can’t stop them nor should we think that we should try. We waste our time and further upset our dogs
by being upset with fireworks and the people who set them off; it’s
counterproductive and it doesn’t help.
THINK ABOUT IT!!!

About Me

I am a very happily married woman and am an amateur photographer. I love my family and friends and my dogs. I am proud to be a pit bull advocate. I like to think I have an open mind and could be considered as a 'hippie' by some people, which is a good thing!